(né Kerschbaumer) Orienteering

Finally, competing again

...that#s what I could have said after last weekend's Swedish League competitions in Åmål. Due to some illness and sicknesses the weeks before, I was competing last time before in Portugal, middle of February. So, I was eager to hear the punching sound again.

But I could have also written: Finally, I'm in the finish, after Saturday's long distance (for me it turned out to be ultra-long distance). It took me 2h 8min to come around the 16km and 750m climbing course, 24min longer than the winner Fredrik Johansson. He passed me on the way to control 11. A few controls later, my batteries started to get more and more empty and a too small energy gel could not compensate enough. Latest on the way towards control 22, the carbohydrate burning oven was totally off. The remining part of the course was more a promenande than a run, not that I did not want to run faster, but it was just impossible. I cannot remember I felt similar before.

Technically it was an ok race. In the first part of the route to control 3, I collected a little bit too much climbing meters. And towards control 16, I was too inaccurate in the control circle and passed the control too high.

After quite a lot of food on Saturday, I felt quite good again at the start of the middle distance. It was an excellent terrain for a middle distance, which asked for accurate navigation with many direction changes, especially minor route choices were crucial, trying to avoid too many of the very steep climbings.

The first controls were ok (although I sitll lost too many seconds to the top times) but I made a parallel mistake to the fifth. Still I wanted to do a good race afterwards, which I mostly succeeded. Place 22 was nothing great, but it was fun anyway to run a challenging competition again.